Retribution and Redemption
by Ruinedbloodshed
Summary: TF:A OC centric Wildfire’s story of Retribution. Zack’s story of Redemption. The two try to sort their shattered lifes out as the threat of war looms. One is filled with rage and the other with guilt. A tale of revenge and friendship with a dash of crazy.
1. Chapter 1

Also known to my brain twin as Bad Ass Mother Fuckers.

Title: Retribution and Redemption

Rating: R for violence. Not sure but maybe some M for slashy-ness later.

Transformers animated (OC centric.)

Summery: Wildfire's story of Retribution. Zack's story of Redemption. The two try to sort their shattered lifes out as the renewed threat of war looms. One is filled with rage and the other with guilt. A tale of revenge and friendship with a dash of craziness.

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The timing couldn't have been more perfect. The elite guard where all off planet and stretched thin while the Deceptioncons attacked the space bridges at the rim of the galaxy. The maximum security prison ward was virtually emptied of Autobots but still chalk full of Con prisoners. The last remaining guards never saw it coming. The empty halls rang loudly with footsteps as the intruder strolled deeper into the detention center. The unfamiliar sounds brought the inmates to the front of their cells to peer through the bars.

"Hey there hot rod, why don't you let me out of here? I'll make it worth your while."

A purple Decepticon purred from behind the bars. Others soon joined him, and in astro seconds the entire complex was bursting with sound. Shouts to be set free rang up through the multiple levels making an unholy racket that the trespasser ignored like it didn't exist. The stranger stopped in front of the door at the end of the long hall that read "solitary" and paused for a moment. With a blur the door was cut down and pieces clattered to the floor with loud metallic bangs. The outsider stepped over the threshold and began walking down another long hall, this time sparsely populated with cells. These ones where completely blocked off from each other with not bars but solid walls to separate these prisoners. The din from the outer cells had quickly faded away to nothingness and soon too did the solitary confinement cells. It was a long stretch of nothing but eerie footsteps ringing off the cold bear walls.

Finally at the end there was a door, thicker then the first that was marked "isolation." Here the stranger stepped to the side to look at the security computer screen. It asked for a hand match to access the single cell beyond. The foreigner held their hand up to the screen to see how close of a match their hand was. Theirs had long fingers where tipped with razor sharp claws instead of the boxy, squat fingers of the Autobot guards. The palm connected to the fingers was smaller than the one needed to make any kind of match. Then the hand began to change, the fingers folded over as the claws retraced, the palm spilt open down the middle to allow the base of the fingers to retract inward and then the metal realigned itself into a thin palm supporting short stubby fingers. Once the owner looked the hand over they pressed it to the security panel. The computer screen scanned the hand and beeped in approval. The heavy door groaned and its hydraulics hissed with effort as it slowly retracted into the wall. Its purpose fulfilled, the hand split back open as the stumpy fingers extended back to their original length and the razor like tips snapped back into place. The intruder quickly stepped through the crack the door had opened to find themselves in a small room.

There was only one light in the room, just over the row of glowing bars that ran through the middle of the space leaving everything but the one spot in complete darkness. The stranger stayed in the darkness looking at the bars. They glowed an angry reddish orange. Energon powered bars, only used on the most dangerous prisoners and incredibly treacherous.

"There are no visiting hours." A deep, low voice said from the far end of the cell. "So I wonder who could this be?"

The visitor stayed quiet and in the shadows, slowly creeping away from the door.

"How sad," the voice said in the dark with a touch of irony. "After all these millina I finally have a visitor and their vocalizer is broken."

There was a soft clatter on the floor near the glowing bars fallowed by a handful more of the same. The stranger watched as a pair of blazing red optics finally came online behind the bars. They hovered in blackness for a moment and then started moving forward to the front of the cell. A long hand reached out into the light to pick up whatever was thrown. Where fingers would have been on a normal bot there where long, deadly sliver claws. Wicked tools to rend armor from bodies with lethal efficiency. With a little bit of difficulty the blade like tips managed to pick up a small silver rectangle from a host of them scattered along the floor. The arm and hand disappeared back into the darkness where the red optics disappeared to look at whatever it had retrieved. There was a snort of vents and an unmistakable chuckle of amusement.

"Memory cores." The prisoner said tossing the rectangle back into the beam of light. "By the looks of them, no doubt torn right out from the processer of quite a few bots."

There was a clicking and whirring as the prisoner heaved himself up from the floor and walked into the light. The mech was big for an Autobot, small for a Decepticaon. Every inch of armor and metallic "skin" was as black as the void between the stars. His massive claws glittered coldly as he folded them across his massive chest plate. His helm was decked with a blade like adornment going front to back and an impressive, almost crown like, decoration sweeping up on both sides of his helm. The ruby red optics looked broadly out into the darkness, probing for his visitor.

"I doubt you came all this way to show me your little trophy collection." He said.

"Do you know…" a voice said coldly from the dark. "What all those memory cores have in common? Besides you?"

The Deception's mouth quirked into a small smile.

"I'm sure your about to tell me."

From the dark the stranger walked forward slowly and deliberately. The Con's optics widened and his arms uncrossed with surprise at the figure sliding into the light. It was a fembot. As red as his eyes with black fire painted across her legs, arms and chest. She was huge for a fembot and taller than him by at least a full cranial unit. That wasn't all that was strange about her. She didn't look like anything the former con had ever seen. Sure all bots looked different but all of them where based off one of a handful of protoform starting molds, and this fem didn't look anything like any of them. For starters her doorwings that normally would be on a bot's back where mounted on the side of her shoulders like shields. Her helm swept back but then split and turned up sharply into what looked almost like horns that where usually only found on minibots. Even the parts to her alt mode looked strange and alien, uncybertronion even. And she did not look happy, though it was hard to tell because of the visor over her optics that was as red as the rest of her.

"Best looking company I've ever had." The con said after the shock wore off.

The fembot didn't look amused as she stared the smaller bot down.

"You have information I want." She said simply.

"I do?" The Decepticon said. "Well since you have such a pretty face I'll tell you whatever you want to know for a kiss."

Everything was instantaneous. The fems arms shot through the engeron bars, grabbed hold of the Con's armor and rammed him into the bars. The black mech screamed as the bars burned into his armor as easily as an energy blade. After an eternity the fem jerked him away from the bars, her face nearly touching the crackling energy.

"You listen to me Duskstrike!" The fem snarled through the bars. "The only reason you're alive right now is because you're a traitor. If you where still a Con I would have ripped out YOUR memory cores just like I did to the rest!"

The fems claws pressed deeper into the underside of the black armor as Duskstrike was lifted off the ground to look her in the visor. The former con gave a little grin despite the pain.

"I'd like to see you try sugar thrusters. You see I'm not locked up in here with all the other slag, their locked up in here with me."

For his little show of defiance Duskstrike had another, longer, meeting with the energon bars. When he was released his armor had smoking, lateral impressions in his armor where the bars had eaten through the tough metal. The red optics flickered weakly as the mechs legs buckled under him.

"Shade!" The fem snapped loudly as she shook the weak mech. "I want everything you know about that slag sucker! Where he came from! What he did in his unit! Where he is now!"

Duskstrike laughed softly to himself.

"Look red," the black mech said. "I haven't seen that skid plate since the war. If you're looking for him now after all this time I can't help ya."

"Then you tell me what you know about him RIGHT NOW!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

The fem whipped around as a shot hit one of the bars next to her shoulder. There was a pair of guards at the door with their weapons trained on her.

"Step away from the prisoner or we will shoot!" The first guard yelled.

"You should have been firing already!" The fem yelled.

The red transformer moved faster then the optic could fallow and disappeared into the dark. The first guard opened fire as the second one hit a switch and the prisoner escape alarm started blaring. Melting out of the darkness a red blur slashed the first guard across the chest sending the wounded bot staggering back who was then bowled over when the rest of the fem landed feet first on him. The second one turned to run when his legs where literally cut out from under him. That guard fell face first to the floor. He tried to claw arm over arm away from the scene when a boot on his back crushed him back down. There was a slicing noise and one of his arms flew free of his body. The rookie guard screamed with pain as energon and coolant started pouring out of his wounds.

Duskstrike watched the fem bring down the irritating guards with literally no effort on her part with an amused optic. Long red swords retraced back into her arms as she turned and walked back towards him. She bent down and scooped up the first guard's body.

"Looks like you're going on a little vacation." She said.

"And you'll be getting me past these bars… how again?"

The fem's mouth quirked up in a little smile.

"I'd stand back if I were you."

Duskstrike moved away from the bars just as the fem tossed the guard she was carrying into the crackling bars. The guard screamed as the raw energy poured into his circuitry and quickly overloaded the bars power supply. The lights in the prison flickered and then went out as the guard's charred body dropped from the cell bars. Now devoid of the deadly engergon the fem gripped two of the bars and pulled them free with a grunt.

"I love strong fems." Duskstrike laughed.

His laughter was cut short as the fem grabbed him by the throat and drug him out of the cell. She hauled him across the floor out the door with Duskstrike clawing at her hand. Power walking back through the solitary confinement hall the fem burst back into the screaming over crowed general population ignoring both her own prisoner, the screaming of the alarm and the countless captured Decepticons throwing themselves against their weaken bars.

"I hope you have a plan to get out of here!" Duskstrike gasped as he was drug across the prison grounds. "They'll have the docking bay locked down."

"I didn't come in a ship." The fem snarled.

She burst through the doors to the living quarters and swiftly made her way to the trash disposal unit where she dropped the treacherous former con.

"That's you big plan?!" Duskstrike yelled from the floor. "To jettison us out into space with no ship?! Oh yes this will turn out well!"

"Shut up!"

The fem tossed him into the airlock and quickly fallowed after hitting the release button with her fist. The first door closed and locked leaving both of them in darkness.

"Worse… rescue… ever." Duskstrike said as he waded up to his optics in trash.

There was a click and the outer door opened to the vacuum of space. With a loud roaring sound the air and everything else in the chamber was sucked out into space. It all happened in a blur, Duskstrike was tumbling end over end bumping into all manner of repulsive garbage and then he was floating helplessly in space. Unable to do anything about his situation now he hung suspended upside-down watching the asteroid prison drift slowly father away.

"Just great." Duskstrike thought to himself.

Then there was the roaring of engines above him. It was difficult in the zero gravity of space but the mech managed to flip himself around to see where the noise was coming from. A shuttle was descending on him with it's hanger doors open. Unable to do anything even if he wanted too Duskstrike was caught by the docking arms and brought up into the shuttle. As soon as the hanger doors where closed the shuttle turned it's thrusters on full and raced off into space.

Duskstrike didn't realize just how tiny this shuttle was until he was locked up in it. Its hold was barely big enough for him and he hardly had room to turn his head.

"I didn't realize I'd be traveling in a coffin." The former con grumbled.

He could only wonder where the emancipator had dissappered too. Clearly this thing wasn't big enough for the both of them, and just who was flying this stupid thing? It had always been an eerie feeling to travel in shuttles. Most shuttles where transformers so it felt like he had been swallowed whole.

"I don't suppose there's an in-flight meal or movie on this ride." He said out loud, more to himself then for anyone that happened to be listening.

"You're complaining?" A grumpy voice said throughout the shuttle. "You're not the one hauling ten tons of dead weight."

That was definitely the fem from the prison, but where in the pit was she.

"Oh I see." Duskstike said with a grin. "I didn't have you pegged for a shuttle sugar thrusters."

"You shouldn't peg me for anything. Appearances are deceptive. Or don't you remember you old motto?"

Duskstrike sighed and turned his optics off.

"Back to business so soon? The movie is about to start."

There was a silence from the shuttle for a while.

"You've been in jail for a long time, you're weak. Get some recharge or you'll be of no use to me."

"Oh be still my beating spark. The great Decepticon warrior thinks of my well being." Duskstrike mocked. "Forgive me if I'm not full throttle for falling into recharge when I'm the prisoner of some strange bot."

"I'm not a Decepticon." The shuttle said simply.

"Well you're sure as the pit not an Autobot."

"That's right I'm not. I don't belong to anyone, remember that."

"You're still a stranger. You busted me out of the Autobot's most impenetrable prison and I don't even know your name."

"What does my name matter?"

"Do you want to remain sugar thrusters forever?"

There was a pause; clearly the shuttle didn't like the name.

"Wildfire." The shuttle said. "My name is Wildfire. We're not strangers anymore. Recharge. Now!"

"That doesn't mean you're not going to turn me over to the cons."

"You're getting irritating with your conspiracies. I made all that effort to break you out of prison so I sure as hell am not giving you over to the cons. Go into recharge or I swear to Primus almighty I will send you into a coma."

"Hell? What's… hell?"

"You're going to find out first hand if you don't SHUTDOWN!"

"Alright, but I'm warning you, if I come online in con territory you're going to be one sorry shuttle."

Duskstrike got as comfortable as he could and then initiated his recharge cycle. Shut down was swift. The former con had never recharged so well in his life.

Now everything was silent besides the sound of her own engines. Wildfire set the coordinates and settled into a fast pace towards to the edge of the galaxy and a long forgotten space bridge. Everything was as planned. Once she got back to Earth the next phase would begin. Her revenge was one step closer.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two! This chapter is more of a background on Duststrike and Wildfire and nothing too exciting happens till the end. But it gives you a better look into the motives and mind of these two.

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Duskstrike slowly booted up out of the best recharge he had ever had to the sound of silence. For an astro-second he panicked thinking he was back in the isolation cell. He tried to free one of his arms but could only move it a slight few inches before it came into contact with metal. Not just the cold, unfeeling wall of a prison cell, but the warm living metal of another Cybertronion. Everything came flooding back and the former con relaxed a little.

"Are we there yet sugar thrusters?" He asked.

An answer didn't fallow the question. Duskstrike waited in the deafening quiet for as long as he could before he tapped one of his claws against the cargo hold wall.

"Hello? Is anyone home out there?"

"Shut up." came the reply.

The fem sounded tired, the order had no edge to it.

"Aw, did I interrupt your nap?"

There was and annoyed grumbling from the shuttle. Duskstrike just grinned as he gave the wall another sharp tap.

"I underestimated your mass. Apparently you're heavier than I thought."

"Was that a feint inkling of a joke I hear?" Duskstrike said.

"Excuse me for needing a break from hauling ten tons or more of dead weight all the way across not one but two galaxies."

"I'm in no rush." The once con said. "Now we have time to talk."

"The last thing I want to do right now is talk."

"Well I've been locked up for a long time with no one to talk too and since I'll be helping you with whatever you've got planed you're going to talk to me or I'll make your life miserable."

"Just talk to yourself."

"Been there done that. I get board of me after a while. We never agree on anything."

"Comforting." The shuttle sighed.

"Fine, I'll start then. I'm Duskstrike, former, with emphasis on former, Decepticon scout and spy extraordinar. I enjoy not being locked up in a prison and long drives on a straight highway in Iacon. Your turn."

"You're not going to shut up unless I play along are you?"

"Now you're catching on."

"We're orbiting in an asteroid field right now. That's within the gravitational pulled of a rather large star. All I have to do is open the doors and you will be slag in a few hours."

Duskstrike was quiet for a moment.

"It'd be worth it. Let's hear about you."

"I'm Wildfire. I enjoy killing Decepticons and watching irritating bots get melted in a superstar."

"Let's not forget revenge. That seems to be a favorite thing of yours."

Wildfire didn't say anything more and Duskstrike was left in the silence once again.

"Oh I seem to have touched an exposed wire there. Touchy subject I'm guessing? Want to talk about it?"

"Oh sure!" Wildfire snorted. "Right after you tell me all the little details about why you, for no discernable reason, you left your rather important place in the Decepticon army, abandoned all your responsibilities as an officer to defect to the enemy with a processor full of highly valuable information all while of course being hunted down by your former brothers in arms to kill you for your betrayal. And then, surprise of surprises instead of welcoming you with open arms, the Autobots locked you up in the most notorious prison known to Cyberton and deleted the access code. Now, I wonder what made you do that? Care to talk about it?"

"I'm sensing you're a very hostel bot." Duskstrike concluded. "All I did was ask a question."

"I'm sensing you're changing the subject." Wildfire shot back. "I'm just dying to know why one of Megatron's favorites would betray him. Let's hear it!"

This time it was Duskstrike's turn to fall into a moody silence. The two floated in peace for hours. Asteroids great and small quietly made their ancient circles around their star undisturbed in the silence like the minuscule visitors weren't there.

"So I'm just thinking out loud," Duskstrike started again. "Feel free to interrupt me with an angry outburst when I guess your story alright?"

Wildfire didn't acknowledge the request and continued to save energy for the next part of the trip. Duskstrike tapped his claws in sequence thinking.

"Well, since your looking for Shade I'm guessing he was the one that did whatever was revenge worthy. Hmmm… oh! I know! He killed your lover didn't he?"

The shuttle said nothing, not even the twitching of a servo or an energy surge in her circuits to show she even heard her prisoner.

"Ok… killed your best friend? What about kidnapping? He kidnap somebot close to you? Destroyed your home? Killed your family? Geeze are you going to help me out here or what?"

"I thought you were going to guess my story." Wildfire said with a sickening, condescending tone.

"No need to be so rude." Duskstike snapped back. "I'm just trying to carry on a conversation here."

"Well you don't see me prying into your past, so just drop it."

"How do you expect me to help you if you don't even tell me why you're doing this?"

"You don't have to know anything." The shuttle snarled. "All you have to do is track down Shade and that's it."

"And what's going to make me?"

"You mean besides the slow painful death you'll suffer if you don't do as I say?"

"Yeah, besides that."

Wildfire snorted and Duskstrike could almost see the wicked grin on her face.

"Two things. One is the rather powerful explosive the prison medics installed right behind your spark chamber as a precaution for an attempted escape. I have the only detonator for it."

"Do any of these reasons not involve deactivation?"

"As a matter of fact yes. I also have in my possession your cloaking generator."

Duskstrike's optics lit up brighter at the mention of the long lost part of him. Every transformer had a unique ability. Duskstrike's was that he could make himself invisible to every form of detection. When he still had his cloaking generator he couldn't be spotted by any form of radar, tracking or targeting devices. He very literally became a ghost. "Smart" weapons that needed to lock onto a target's energy signature where useless against him. Security systems were obsolete. The only way he could be found is by looking for him with the naked optic, but by the time he was in visual range his targets never had enough time to react. But that was a long time ago. Without it he didn't feel complete.

"Do you really have it?" He asked hopefully.

"I could rip you limb from limb, why would I need to lie about something so small?"

"You have yourself a deal then! Sugar… wait… what was your name again?"

"Wildfire." came the exasperated sigh. "And don't ever call me "sugar-thrusters" again."

"I don't know, I kind of like it."

"I regret this arrangement already." Wildfire lamented.

"You know, you act all tough but really I don't think you are. I bet you've got the soft spark of an Autobot under all that Decepticon armor."

There was a sharp click in the quite of space and Wildfire's cargo bay doors opened.

"Hey hey hey! What are you doing!?"

Duskstrike thrashed his arms and legs as he floated free of the shuttle. He wasn't just casually just floating either, he could feel himself being pulled backwards. A quick glance over his shoulder and the former spy could see that Wildfire wasn't kidding about that very large star.

"Oh come on your mad about that?! It was a complement!"

"Have fun star surfing."

The shuttle's engines started back up as Duskstrike drifted further away.

"You're really going to leave me here to get melted down? What about finding Shade?!"

"If you're going to act like this, then I'm better off alone. Besides, I'll be doing the universe a favor getting rid of you."

The powerful engines gave a roar as the shuttle headed right for the helpless mech. Duskstrike grunted as one of the wings gave him a shove and he started tumbling end over end towards the star. Now instead of a few hours to termination the fem had effectively cut down the time to a matter of minutes. The spy watched Wildfire point her nosecone in the opposite direction and fly off into the asteroid field.

"Well great!" Duskstirke mumbled. "I get busted out of prison and then die. Way to go. OUCH!"

One of the smallest asteroids smacked into him before rebounding and floating off in the other direction.

"Great, one finally humiliation before I offline." Duskstirke grumbled rubbing the spot where the space rock had left a dent.

His body was getting hotter every passing astro-second. The internal cooling system was useless in the vacuum of space so Duskstrike had to watch the warnings flash across his optics about his core temperature reaching dangerous leaves. His heavy armor started to burn and the sensory nodes embedded throughout his whole body started to scream. Burning alive was excruciating! His internal alarms blared in his head that he was on the verge of going into stasis and not long after that into oblivion. So over whelmed with pain and so loud where is own alarms Duskstike didn't hear the roar of engines or feel the sting of the docking arm as it latched around his midsection. What he did feel was the icy coldness of space leeching away the lethal heat. When his alarms finally ceased and he regained his senses he was out of the asteroid field and flying off to some unknown location.

"I believe your next words should be "I will never call you names again!" with some groveling and begging for your life after that."

Duskstrike sighed and sagged against the docking arm as it lifted him back up into the small cargo bay. Any energy he had from his recharge was gone.

"Whatever you say you deranged fembot."

"How nice of you to say."

With a sigh, and some unsaid curses, Duskstrike shut down into recharge to give his repair systems time to work.

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"Wake up you sorry excuse for a mech!"

Duskstrike came online too suddenly for his processor and before he remembered where he was he tried to sit up. He banged his head on the low ceiling earning a grunt of pain both for himself and his shuttle host.

"Watch it slag for brains!"

"Waking me up to call me names is just rude."

"That's not why I woke you up. We have company."

Duskstrike tensed.

"What kind of company?"

"The unwanted kind. I'm picking up five Decepticons,"

"I KNEW I couldn't trust you!"

"Pipe down! And five Autobots."

"So?" Duskstrike relaxed a little. "Just stay off their radar."

"If only it where that simple. Their fighting by the space bridge we need to barrow."

"Your plan involves a space bridge? Oh this can't be good."

"Nothing I ever plan seems to be easy." Wildfire snorted with amusement. "We'll just have to wait till they kill each other."

"Kill each other? Last I heard the Con's where just annoyance around the rim of the galaxy. Shouldn't the elite guard be running them off?"

"Oh you are so behind the times." Wildfire laughed. She actually laughed. "Some cycles ago a group of unwitting Autobots stumbled across the All Spark."

"ALL SPARK?!" the mech roared. "THE All Spark?!"

"No," Wildfire said sarcastically. "the other All Spark. Of course THE All Spark you moron!"

"It was supposedly lost for all time! I can't believe they found it!"

"Well you're not going to be so upbeat in a minute. It brought Megatron out of hiding."

Duskstrike's optics widened at the information.

"Yeah I thought you'd like that little bit of intel. So anyways Megsy,"

"Megsy?"

"Are you going to shut up and listen or what?"

"Sorry."

"Anyways Megatron chased down this little group of Autobots through the space bridge off into some uncharted corner of space. Starscream planted the rumor that Megatron was dead so he could take over, but he got slagged in his own little explosion."

"Stupid Starscream." Duskstrike grinned. "He'd never learned he's just not leader material."

"Don't get excited Megatron didn't die. He just got seriously fucked up."

"Fucked up? Where the hell are you getting these weird words like "hell" and "fucked up?"

"From the planet I've been on for the last few orbital cycles. Which is the one the Autobots and Megatron crash landed on. So Megatron get's seriously slagged up, there is that better for you? But one of the planet's inhabitants, their called humans, fixed him up so he's back and more powerful than before."

"Great." Duskstrike sighed. "And let me guess, that's the planet we're heading for?"

"Like I said, nothing is easy. Plus, not only is he more powerful, but he's reorganizing the Cons back into an army and judging by how much of a pounding these Autobots are taking he's got his old forces back. So you might be running into a few old friends it looks like."

"So why doesn't the elite guard reorganize and meet them head on. With Megatron on some other planet Cons aren't nearly as motivated to fight."

"Well that would have been a good idea. Except for the fact that Autobots are even stupider than a trash compacter. Ultra Magnus still believes that Megatron is dead and the cons are a bunch of ragtag gangs. They're going to be wiped out before Magnus even considers the truth."

"Is that a touch of concern for the Autobots I hear?"

"I could turn you over to that Decepticon war party if you'd like."

"I guess I was mistaken about that concern I thought I heard. So I guess we wait till they leave."

"They're not trying to leave…" Wildfire said slowly. "Their trying to use the bridge. Oh this is not going to be good."

"Megatron's ultimate goal." Duskstrike said softly. "He's probably going to do what he always wanted. Use the space bridge to warp to Cybertron and take over from the inside."

"Great. All the elite guards are off planet dealing with Con attacks everywhere along the edge of the galaxy. Looks like Megsy is going to get his wish. It's going to be a bloodbath."

"Bloodbath? What's blood?"

"What's this?" Wildfire said ignoring the question. "Their… leaving? Why?"

"Pride." Duskstrike said simply. "Megatron probably can't get to Cybertron so he called off the attack. There's no way he'd let them lead the charge without him there to take the glory."

"The Autobots live for another day it looks like."

"So can we go now? No offence but I'm getting tired of being locked up in your hold."

"Trust me, the feeling is mutual. But I want to make sure their not coming back before we make the jump."

"Decepticons don't make a habit of coming back to a battle they've already won."

"Well aren't you just a wealth of useless information I already knew."

"Just trying to help." Duskstrike shrugged. "If it were a trap they wouldn't have beat the scrap out of them and then left."

"I'll keep that in mind. Accessing the space bridge control interface now, hold on to your hydraulic systems."

Duskstrike waited for whatever was supposed to happen but clearly it wasn't happening.

"Any cycle now."

"Stick it in neutral. They've shut down the power nexus. I have to hack into the control mainframe, bypass the override and divert power back to the conductors."

"In plain Cybertronion please."

"I have to turn it back on. Is that plain enough for you?"

"Good luck with that. Megatron tried to do just that every day of the war. He never succeeded."

"Hang on!"

Wildfire's engines roared and Duskstrike actually slid back as far as he could in the cramped space. Clearly this fem had some power. There was a strange sound just at the threshold of his audios. One that he only remembered from being ambushed during the war. It started softly, just barely audible over the sound of the engines but quickly grew in pitch until it was a dull roaring drowning out everything else. Then there was a feeling of every molecule, every atom, being pulled apart in every direction and then rapidly being crushed back together.

"Uuuugh. Not good." Duskstrike moaned. "Space bridge travel does not agree with me!"

"Don't you dare purge your tanks in my hold."

"I seems you got the bridge working. Ugh… so … are we there now?"

"Yes we are. Welcome to Earth Duskstrike. I suggest you connect to their "world wide web" and download the vital information about this planet and it… ARG!"

The shuttle quickly banked right as laser fire raked her wings.

"Hey! What's going on?!" Duskstrike yelled trying to brace himself.

"Damn seeker clones!" Wildfire yelled, rolling over to avoid more fire.

Duskstrike slammed into the hanger doors which hurt both of them.

"Damn jets! You're all the same." The black mech grumbled. "No warning."

"Well this would be a lot easier without YOU! Hang on!"

Wildfire did something and had Duskstrike banging from side to side and cursing her every time he hit a wall. There was a loud pop and the smell of burnt metal.

"That's it. If we don't split up we're both going to die!"

"What do you suggest we do? I'm not a flying model!"

"Hope your armor is as thick as you think it is! Prepare for atmosphere entry!"

"Oh no! No no no no no no!"

"Stick close to wherever you land and I'll pick you up when I shake off these damn seekers!"

"NOOOO!! CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS?!"

Zack felt the doors open and he was falling. And not falling like in space, he was in some strange plant's atmosphere and it was getting hot. Not nearly as hot as falling into a sun, but it was still incredibly uncomfortable. Not only that be he could see the planet surface coming up fast and he didn't have any way to slow down.

"Times like these I wish I was a flight model."

He hit the ground shoulder first and blacked out from the impact. When he finally came to a stop there was at least a mile long tail in the ground in the dry desert sand.


	3. Chapter 3

The humans finally get to enter the story! Well one of them at least. I thought this chapter was going to be shorter then it turned out to be. Oh well the next human gets to be in the next chapter! WOO! Duskstrike final get's his "TRUE" name!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

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Duskstrike's joints creaked. His system checks ran slowly, almost groggily. Everything ached, everything felt broken. That free fall from space was going to cost that damn fem dearly.

"Should have…" His vocalizer rasped. "listened to teacher… fems are… insane…"

He ticked his claws to see if they were still intact. Something made a crinkling noise and muffled the sound of his claws. Had he not just fallen from space, these new, strange surrounding would have worried him. Even having the instincts of a soldier, somehow being dropped through an atmosphere dulled the need to know where he was.

"Uh, I think I just fell into the pit…"

His optics flickered back online and Duskstrike found himself looking up at a very strange, very low ceiling.

"Uuhh…" He moaned sitting up.

His claws made more of the noise from before and now that he was a little more conscious he decided to investigate. The floor he was sitting on was covered with some kind of… organic covering. It was a gold color and small. It was made up of countless long thin pieces that crinkled and folded in his investigating claws. He looked over to the side of him and was surprised to find more organic stuff. He seemed to be in the middle of a small organic based room. On the ground of both sides by the wall had been separated into tiny rectangles no no discernable reason. Duskstrike had seen more than his share of organic organisms back during the war. This hold place seemed to be entirely made out of organic material though! Duskstrike did a scan to see if anyone was around to help him out and found somebot was behind him. In one of the rectangles was a bot with the strangest vehicle mode Duskstrike had ever seen. Whoever it was, was all black, they could be a Decepticon. The black mech hoped he could pull off being a neutral. It had been a long time scene he had to act.

"Hey there! Can you help a bot out? Where in Primus's name am I?" Duskstrike asked.

Whoever it was they didn't talk to him. Duskstrike waved his claw in front of what he guessed was the other bot's front.

"Can you at least tell me what planet I'm on?"

Dusk scanned the bot to see if maybe the other was in recharge mode and unable to hear him. Or whoever they where was a royal crankshaft. When the scan finished he was startled to find no energy signature and no sign of life at all. Was this a corpse of another prisoner?! Should he start panicking?!

"Wooooah!"

Duskstrike jumped when a quiet little voice whispered behind him. He leapt around to see one of the walls was cracked open. Peeking through the crack was the smallest, ugliest… THING he had ever seen.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Both screamed in unison. Duskstrike awkwardly leapt back into the shell of a bot as he tried to scramble backwards while whatever was behind the weird organic wall slammed it closed.

AJ fought the urge to run full tilt back to the house as she put her hand over her heart to kept it from squeezing between her ribcage and pounding out of her chest. It was awake! She was seriously rethinking hauling that thing all the way back to the barn. What was she thinking?! That thing just destroy the whole ranch like it was nothing! All those news reports out of Detroit could attest to that. Still, there were those good space robots that she had seen all over the internet. Maybe this one was one of them. AJ worked up her nerves and cracked the door to the barn open again, just enough to peek through. The robot alien was sprawled backwards over the other half of the barn making what sounded like a groaning noise. She cracked the door a little wider and poked her head inside to get a better look. When the robot didn't jump up and start shooting death rays all over the place AJ slipped inside\. The robot was just lying on the ground of the barn, straw thrown all over its black body.

"H… hello?"

Duskstrike lifted his head to see the oddest looking organic based creature standing timidly by the slightly opened door. It said something in a foreign language, or what he thought was a language. That was crazy wasn't it? Organic life wasn't able to develop past simple single celled creatures and it certainly wasn't capable of being considered sentient… wasn't it? It had no armor to speak of. It's optics where rings of brown coloring set in a white base that slightly bludged out of its helmet. And from the top of its helmet some bizarre… flexible stuff was hanging down to it's shoulders. Duskstrike propped himself up on his elbows and fixed the organic… thing with his crimson stare.

"What are you?" He asked.

He watched a flicker of confusion cross the organism's face. Duskstrike suddenly realized that whatever this thing was, it didn't speak Cybertronion. Wildfire had mentioned something about world wide web and Hue-mans? Who-mans? Now that he was looking for it Duskstrike found a wireless signal and connected to it. Their "internet" was actually pretty remarkable, in less them a beam he knew all the languages "Earth" had to offer. Not to mention a basic grasp of "humans" and their fundamental construction blueprints.

"Greetings human." Duskstrike said slowly.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The little human leapt into one of the rectangles in a panic.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Duskstrike said putting his claws up to show he didn't have a weapon. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The little human female poked her head over the wall she was hiding behind but didn't come out.

"How'd you do that?" she asked.

Duskstrike slowly tapped his head with one of his claws.

"I don't have slag just sitting up here."

Finally convinced enough to come out of hiding the human shuffled out into view, but still held onto the corner just in case she had to hide agian.

"So… what are you?" The human asked.

"I asked you first." Duskstrike answered right back.

"Uh no, I asked you first."

"No, I did, it just wasn't in your language."

"You're the alien! You tell me who YOU are."

"Alright," Duskstrike finally conceded, but this human was getting annoying. "I'm from a planet called Cybertron." He decided to leave out that he'd been locked up on an asteroid prison for the last few million stellar cycles for being a traitor.

"Do you… have a name?"

That question gave Duststrike pause. What normally would have been an easy answer posed something of a problem. Here was a golden opportunity. No one knew him here, he could start over with a completely blank datapad. But… could he really give up his past? Everything he was? Everything he had become? Would it do any good?

"Hello? Anyone still there?"

Duskstrike shook his head coming back to the present. The human had come fully out of hiding and was standing in front of him looking rather confused.

"I'm still here, just thinking."

"Your name is that difficult?"

"It is when you don't have one."

"Well I'm AJ." The human said as she slowly extended her hand.

Duskstrike cocked his head to the side looking at the human named AJ.

"It's… called a hand shake. It's how we say hello here."

Duskstrike extended one clawed hand towards AJ. The human shrank back when those massive claws came at her. The mech quickly withdrew his hand. Despite not wanting to hurt her he was still incredibly intimidating. Even after abandoning the Decepticons and all they stood for he was still built like one, and nothing could change that.

"Sorry," He apologized. "These things are kind of sharp."

More carful of his human visitor this time Duskstrike lowered a single claw just within reach. AJ carefully grasped the claw with both hands and shook the huge digit.

"Welcome to Earth giant alien robot with no name. I'm AJ."

"You already told me your name."

"I know, but when you shake hands you tell the other person… er… one you're shaking hands with your name."

"Well when I pick a name we can shake hands again and I'll tell you my name."

"So how come you don't have a name?" AJ asked.

"I'm starting a new life. Forgetting the past and starting over. I figured I needed a new name to complete the transformation."

"That's a pretty noble cause, but want made you decide to do that? Why here?" AJ asked.

"I didn't have much choice on the where," the mech grumbled. "I traveled here with another bot like me but she was red. You haven't happened to have seen her have you?" changing the subject seemed like a good idea.

"No." AJ said shaking her head. "I've only have seen you here."

"And where exactly is "here?"

"You're in Texas!" AJ said as if he was a fool for not knowing. "More precisely on my ranch in my storage barn."

"What in the name of the Allspark is a "ranch" or "barn?"

"You can learn English in under a minute but you can't figure out what a ranch is?"

"Hey I just got here. And if you had as rough of a landing as I did you wouldn't be as informed either."

"Sorry. I almost forgot about that large smoking crater I dragged you out of."

"It still hurts." Duskstrike said rubbing the shoulder that had taking the initial impact.

"Can I get anything for you? I don't know if humans have anything you need but I could try…"

"Unless you have a big cube of energon hidden around here somewhere there's nothing you can do."

"I have no idea what "energon" is. I don't suppose I can find it on the internet?"

"Doubt it. While we're on the subject… AJ… what a strange name, you wouldn't know where I could get a better "internet" signal do you? It's hard to gather information on your planet when the signal keeps fading in and out."

"Sure! The house has a really good signal. I'll take you there, let me just get my truck zack."

AJ moved around the black alien who watched her with his red eyes. When she got to the stall she had parked her truck in she found a scene of disaster. The last two stalls where crushed into oblivion, including AJ's black truck.

"NOOOOOOOOO! ZACK!" AJ ran forward and threw herself at her favorite, and only, truck.

"So that's what broke my fall…" Duskstrike mused.

AJ's poor little truck was crushed almost beyond recognition, the human made some sniffling noises which cought Duskstrike's attention. How in the universe did she make those strange noises?

"Oh man! What am I going to do? I have no car now!"

Duskstrike looked up the word "car" and found something remarkable. Here on Earth the humans had modes of transpiration similar to the vehicle modes Cybertronions had back home. Going back to the scans he had taken of the "truck" before it met its untimely end Duskstrike reformatted his transformation sequence to that of the truck. It was a perfect match for his mass ratio and was even black like him. Still a little sore from his landing, but eager to try out this new form he transformed for the first time in quite a few millennia. AJ turned around in time to see a clone of her old truck settling onto its new wheels. Duskstrike twisted his new "tires" and wriggled his "rear view mirrors."

"Not bad. A little primitive but I always liked classic looks."

"WOAH!" AJ gaped at the robot that was now a truck. "You look just like Zack!"

"I barrowed his design, this will help me blend in with your society and keep a low profile."

"Oh my gosh! Zack! I'm totally going to call you Zack!"

"That's a stupid name!" Duskstirke said revving his engine. "I was thinking something cool sounding."

"Well I'm calling you Zack because you ARE Zack."

"No, I just look like Zack."

"That's enough for me to call you Zack, Zack."

Now christened "Zack" the former con sighed and opened his driver side door.

"Come on. Let's go already."

"I can really have a ride?!" AJ's eyes lit up with happiness.

"What? You plan on walking?"

Zack and AJ where cursing along the open plains of Texas with the windows rolled down. Zack (on no he had started calling himself that stupid name already!) had been surprised by the amazing array of organic life on this planet. It was the exact opposite of Cybertron. Everything was colorful, not metal and… alive! They had an atmosphere far thicker than the one on Cybertron that gave them wind and weather. AJ promised something called a "thunderstorm" and even "tornados" later on. The planet even had a star that they called "the sun." Cybertron's own star had burnt out long before anyone could remember.

"I like "thunderstorm," that's a much more powerful sounding name. How about that instead of Zack." He had tried to argue.

"Zack. And that's final."

Instead of heading straight for the "house" Zack decided to go exploring around AJ's ranch. He found that not only humans populated this little mud ball. There were even animals like cows and horses that where even weirder looking then humans. AJ even directed him through a town where Zack had to make two or three circles to get a better look at things. Humans seemed to be incredibly diverse in their looks. Almost like the bots back home. Much to his human rider's displeasure Zack parked himself along the main road and watched both the humans and their cars for hours. Everything here was so strange, and yet somehow similar to the world he came from. When AJ finally convinced him to head towards her house Zack had a processor full of things to explore on the internet. Frist thing he wanted to know was why the light was fading and all the humans where disappearing. AJ instructed him to park behind the house and to stay out of sight. Something about her family freaking out if they knew an alien robot was staying with them.

"Where are you going? I've still got questions!" Zack asked AJ when she closed his door and headed towards the house.

"Uh… to sleep. Duh."

"What "sleep?"

"Something we human's have do to at night."

"Night?"

"Dude Zack." AJ said giving him a pat on the hood. "I'm tired. Do me a favor and look it up online… please?"

"Well then just explain sleep then!"

"Good night Zack. Stay out of trouble till morning."

"Morning? When is that? Is that anything like night?"

"Look it up!" AJ said as he turned on her heel. "Aliens!" she muttered to herself.

Zack watched her enter the smallest house he had ever seen. It wouldn't have even been able to fit him. Storage space seemed a more fitting name then house. Zack guessed he was staying outside, which was actually fine with him. He had been locked up long enough that a few days spent outside didn't seem that bad. Now that AJ wasn't giving him more things to wonder about every moment Zack decided to explore this new world's internet and answer all the questions he had. The first thing on the list was the new phenomenon called "night." After he was satisfied with the moment of the Earth through its spinning orbit around the Sun he moved onto some of the human's stranger customs, like "sleep" which in reality turned out to be recharge.

After he answered his questions his attention turned to finding out why of all places in the universe Wildfire had brought them here to his backwater planet. Zack sifted through the mountain of news coverage he found online and it didn't take him long to find that there was a small group of Autobots on the planet as well. All the stellar cycles behind bars hadn't diminished his razor sharp instincts. He could tell just from the news clips he was watching that these where not well trained fighters. Some more digging produced scant images of Decepticons caught on tape. Apparently they were more camera shy then the Autobots. So far he had only found two Cons, Lugnut whom every Decepticon knew and a Triple changer that Zack hadn't seen before. Clearly if the suck up Lugnut was here Megatron couldn't be too far away. That didn't bode well for him. Wildfire goes missing and leaves him stranded on the same planet as Megatron? What was that bot up to? Zack decided that he'd have to seriously scrutinize his travel partner IF she ever decided to return. For now he would shut down into recharge and get a better lay of the land and come up with his own plans in the morning. This of course was when one the Earth's sides rotated to face the sun. What a weird planet these humans inhabited. Zack looked up at the sky and marveled at the stars. Cybertron was so brightly flooded with light that only one star, two if a bot was lucky, could ever be seen from the surface. When on was not floating helplessly in space or falling into a super ball of gas, the stars look quite beautiful. Peaceful even. Zack shut down his outer sensors and then began his recharge cycle. Wondering what in the pit he had gotten himself into was going to have to wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, I realize I have no real idea what goes on around a ranch. Please forgive me for not being a real cowgirl. I would if I could though! … Brian twin! I'm sensing an epic adventure there!

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Zack was rudely awakened the next morning by someone crawling into his cab uninvited.

"Rise and shine Zack!"

Zack's systems booted up quickly as AJ slammed his door closed and rubbed her hands together trying to keep them warm in the early morning chill.

"What the pit do you think you're doing?! It isn't even light out!" Zack snapped grumpily, he wanted to get back to recharge.

"That's the whole point! We have a lot of work to do and we can't waste a moment of daylight."

"Oh no no no no no! I didn't sign up for work. Now if you'll kindly get lost I have a recharge cycle to get back to.… AHHH!! Hey what was that?!"

AJ turned her key in the ignition and Zack's engine roared to life, shattering the super early morning quiet.

"Hey hey hey! Knock that slag off!" Zack protested when AJ put him in drive and started pressing the gas pedal with her foot and the alien robot started moving forward slowly.

"Get moving!" AJ demanded. "We have chores to do!"

"NO!" Zack's brakes squealed as the pick up truck lurched to a hard stop. "I'm not done recharging so you go do YOUR chores YOURSELF!"

AJ glared at her truck's dashboard and stomped on the gas petal. The engine revved loudly but still didn't move.

"Zack this isn't a game! Get your tailpipe in gear!"

"I didn't come across light years of space and through countless galaxies to help you with chores. Get a tractor for that!"

"Old Zack WAS my tractor!" AJ snapped as she gave the steering wheel a hard jerk to the left and right. "You killed him so YOU have to take his place!"

"Not on your spark! That was an accident! You can't blame me!"

"Well if you want I can get my butt to Detroit and tell those other robots what a pain you are! Would you like that?"

Zack grumbled to himself. The last thing he wanted or needed right now was tipping off the Autobots that he was on Earth. They must know about the prison break by now and Zack was in no shape to take on a group of Autobots, no matter how untrained they might be.

"FINE! Whatever you energon sucking sharkitcon! I'll help with your slagging chores!"

"Don't complain! You just have to haul stuff around; I have to do the hard work!"

Begrudgingly, Zack let AJ "drive" him to whatever work she had planned for him and he was NOT looking forward to it. He hadn't escaped a maximum security prison, cheated death and didn't get killed by a mysterious angry fem to end up on a backwater organic mud ball to do a human's bidding.

The early morning hours where easy. AJ had to feed animals around the ranch which only required Zack to haul various types of "food" around in the bed of his new altmode. Around noon they had to pick up hay from out in the fields and bring it in to store in the barn. Which was then AJ realized that the last two stalls in the barn where crushed and old Zack was still laying there in ruins. She slightly panicked then when she realized that her parents might see the damage and quote; "freak out." Whatever that meant. New Zack proved to be quite useful besides just being a tractor. He easily lifted up the old pick up and got it out of the way. This let AJ have access to repair the stalls as best she could. While the human was occupied, Zack carefully hefted the hay bales up to the loft of the barn. Which considering his size was so easy it was nearly laughable. The only real problem was his claws. They kept cutting the string tied around the bales or slicing the hay in half, but after the first few tries he adapted and soon the razor sharp weapons were not a problem. With the most time consuming chore out of the way AJ decided to take a break from her repair work. The pair took a rest at the human's favorite spot. Down one of the ranch's tails, far away from her house, was a beautiful orchard of trees that would shade both of them if Zack sat down. The black pick up casually settled himself with his back to a particularly sturdy tree and relaxed as AJ snacked on her lunch.

"I thought you said I was going to have to work?" Zack drawled.

"That WAS work for some of us." AJ said through a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly.

"Huh. That wasn't so bad."

Zack offlined his red optics with a sigh. His cool metal claws moved lightly on the earth's surface scraping up organic dirt that actually felt rather enjoyable. A breeze rustled by and sent the leaves fluttering on their branches. The strange new noise was pleasant and soothing, and nearly lulled the black mech into recharge. Perhaps this planet wasn't so bad after all. Just as Zack was starting to nod off something appeared on the fringes of his scanners. It was small but moving fast. He amplified his audios in the direction the object was coming and there was definitely something coming their way.

"Do you hear that?" Zack asked quickly going to his personal red alert.

"Yeah…" AJ said as she put her hand to her ear. "It sounds like a motorcycle or something. That's weird… there's nothing out that way but sand and a new crater from your crash landing. OH SHIT! You don't think it's the government come to cover you up do you?!"

AJ jumped up and waved her arms at Zack.

"Move move move HIDE!! It's the Men in Black! They'll erase my memory and take you away!!"

"What are you babbling about?" Zack snorted.

"Just hide!" AJ ordered.

Confused at what "men in black" where Zack quickly disappeared deeper into the trees. A few moments later Zack could see that it was a human on a strange two wheeled vehicle; AJ had called it a "motorcycle," what an odd thing to call it. The human on the motorcycle slowed down when they saw AJ. They waved and came to a stop a few feet away from her.

"Hi!"

The motorcycle human killed the engine and took off its helmet. AJ was surprised to see that is was a girl. She didn't know men in black could be girls. The other looked a little older then her as she shook out her short black hair and dismounted the bike.

"You live around here?" The new girl asked.

"I… um… yes."

"Well hi!" The black haired girl said with a bright smile. "I'm Jess. Nice to meet you."

She extended her hand and AJ shook it rather confused. This wasn't how the MIB acted in the movies. Her blue-green eyes had no dark sunglasses coving them and she didn't wear a dark suit. In fact she was wearing pretty normal looking clothes.

"I'm… AJ."

"Well AJ, I've got a question for you. Maybe you can answer it for me. No one else seems too."

Jess set her black helmet down at her feet while Zack carefully watched her from the shadows of the trees.

"Do you know about that wicked looking crater?" Jess hooked a thumb over her shoulder. "Its a few miles that way, out in the middle of nowhere. About a mile long and pretty damn deep?"

"Oh… uh… yeah. A meteorite strike a couple of days ago. Big explosion. Saw it from the house. I was nowhere near it."

"Oh, well I was wondering, with you living nearby and all, if anything… strange… happened around the crater."

Zack's optics narrowed, this new human knew something about him. He didn't like it. How did she know about his landing and why was she looking for him? Who's side was she on?

"Umm… nothing like that! Nothing at all! I haven't been near the thing!"

"If you haven't been near it… umm… how would you know nothing strange has happened?"

"W-well!" AJ quickly back tracked. "I was just there a few hours ago! Nothing strange! Nope! Not at all!"

Jess gave AJ a skeptical look and bit her lower lip thinking.

"Nothing strange?" She seemed unconvinced.

"Nope! Nothing at all!"

"You know…" Jess said reaching into her pocket. "I have something you should see…"

"OH GOD!" AJ threw up her hands over her face. "Please don't Neuralyzer me! I won't tell anyone you're MIB!"

"MIB? As in Men in Black? Kid I think you watch too many movies."

Jess pulled something purple out of her pocket and presented it to AJ.

"Does this look familiar to you at all?"

AJ looked at the purple thing and found whatever it was looked like a face. It wasn't a very friendly looking face at all; it looked like it was glaring at her.

"DECEPTICON SYMPATHIZER!"

Jess and AJ both screamed as Zack roared and lunged out of his hiding spot. The big black mech quickly extended his claws and brought them down around the new human female that had the Decepticon insignia. Jess fell to the floor looking up at those red eyes absolutely terrified.

"Sweet JESUS cheese and crackers!" She yelped as she found herself in a very sharp prison.

Zack turned to AJ who was picking herself up and trying to scramble away.

"AJ! Get to safety! YOU!" He roared turning his attention back his captive. "Where did you get that!?"

"H-holy crap! It's you!" Jess said as she took a deep breath. "I've been looking for you!"

"You had better start talking human or you had better start praying to a higher power!"

Zack closed his finger claws closer together making Jess stand if she didn't want to be sliced open.

"Easy there big guy easy!" Jess yelled as she avoided the claws that were closing in on her. "I'm NOT a Decepticon sympathizer!"

"Then how did you get that insignia?!"

"Ahh! Hey watch my ride will ya!" Jess said motioning to the motorcycle that Zack's large foot was very close to stepping on.

"TALK human!" Zack snarled.

"Ok ok ok! Geeze! She never told me you'd been this mean!"

"She?" Zack snapped. "Whose "she?"

"Well if you'd give me a second to pick my heart up off the floor I'd tell you! Damn you just gave me a heart attack! Give a girl a second!"

With shaky hands Jess pulled another insignia out of her pocket, this one was red.

"There is that better?! I'm an AUTOBOT supporter! Hear me? AUTOBOT!"

Zack kept glaring and didn't release her. Jess huffed as she stuffed both insignias back into her jacket.

"Holy cow you are way more jumpy then I was lead to believe! And now that my heart is beating again, Wildfire sent me to get you ok? W-I-L-D-F-I-R-E!"

"I'm not deaf." Zack snorted.

"Well I'm sorry if I want to make sure you get all the facts right so we don't have to repeat this misunderstanding. Can you let me go now?"

Zack thought about it a moment and then finally retracted his claws. Jess sighed with a shoulder slump relieved to be alive.

"You scared ten years off my life!"

"I'll do more than that if you don't explain yourself!"

"Wait wait wait time out!" AJ interrupted holding up her hands in a "T" shape. "You know ANOTHER alien robot?"

"I sure do!" Jess told her, happy to be dealing with someone her own size.

"Why isn't Wildfire here herself?" Zack snapped.

"Geeze! Relax!" Jess said calmly. "She would have but she's getting her wings patched up. She sent me instead to get you up to speed on Earth, but it looks like you've already found someone for that. Thanks for talking care of him for me AJ."

Zack grumbled something about being abused and not needing a human to take care of him.

"No problem! It was fun! So tell me, what are the other robots like?"

"PISH!" Jess snorted as she put her hands on her hips. "Which one? All six of them are a pain in my butt. Not to mention the Dino-bots! You won't think it but they all get themselves in so much trouble! Never a minute's peace!"

"WHOA! There are six of them?! What are Dino-bots?! Are those like DINOSAUR ROBOTS?!"

"Well I have seven counting this guy here." Jess casually pointed over her shoulder at Zack. "Not counting the Dinobots. Oh. Sorry. I didn't catch your name there big guy what with the heart attack and all."

"Zack! He's name is Zack!" AJ said brightly, happy to fill in the stranger.

"Zack?" Jess cocked an eyebrow at the Cybertronian.

"Long story," Zack grumbled. "Don't ask."

"Well… Zack… it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Jess. Well Jessy, but call me Jess."

Jess extended her hand towards the large robot. Zack was excited that he knew the human custom she was offering. With a better understanding of the ritual this time around Zack carefully extended a single claw for Jess to shake.

"I'm Zack."

"Jess, Zack. Zack, Jess." AJ formally introduced. "Now let's hear about those other robots!"

Jess leaned up against a tree and began her story. Wildfire hadn't told her how much Zack knew about the events on Earth so she started at the very beginning. AJ sat enchanted with her head in her hands listing intently. Zack kept one audio on the story and one listing for a sign of Wildfire, or Primus forbid, the Decepticons. Jess explained things as best she could for AJ, like the "Great Wars," the All Spark, Autobots Decepticons and how a rag tag repair crew ended up on Earth fifty years ago. She told them all about Megatron, Starscream and his clones (which is who Zack guessed had shot them down) and all the other events in-between leading up to the resent space bridge fiasco and losing Blurr and Omega Supreme to some random point in space. Zack optics blinked nervously. He was one of the very, very few survivors of the enormous mech and he was not eager to see the death machine again. Thank everything holy that he was gone for good.

"And that's about all I know. After the space bridge exploded Wildfire told me to lay low back home in California while she went to get something. I just didn't know that something was going to be you." Jess said looking up at Zack.

"Well neither did I." Zack corrected.

"Ok ok, so you told me about all the bots in Detroit, but you haven't told me anything about your Wildfire! What's she like?"

"Hmm… well," Jess said tapping her chin in thought. "She's… different from the other bots and…"

"A homicidal, anger issue ridden, sick, twisted, sadistic psychopath?" Zack offered.

"Well I was going to say wicked badass."

"Until she drops you into a star and leaves you to die…" Zack mumbled to himself.

"What was that?" AJ asked.

"Nothing."

"It's hard to explain Wildfire; I'll let her make a first impression when she gets here."

"Should I be worried?" AJ inquired after that little bit of information from Zack.

"Nothing to worry about, Fire loves humans. She'll definitely be excided to meet you too so…" Jess said looking up at the sky and the sun sinking towards the horizon. "How about I meet you guys here tomorrow at three-ish?"

"If Zack helps me with my chores again like today that shouldn't be a problem." AJ concurred. "But… do you have a place to stay? If you need you can stay in the barn with Zack."

Jess looked up at Zack who looked back down at her.

"No it's ok. I've got a place where I'll less likely be squished on accident."

"What do you mean I'M staying in the barn?" Zack snapped.

~!~!~!~!~

Zack found out later why he was staying in the barn. A rainstorm washed over the plains of Texas that night. Zack stayed nice and dry in his new home. AJ had assured him over and over that rain on Earth was harmless (though she failed to tell him about hail). The soft pattering on the roof made a nice melody to fall in to recharge too as Zack turned off his systems.

Morning came swiftly and brought new discoveries with it. First of which was mud, a discovery Zack was not fond of. Dirt plus water did not equal a happy Zack. The mud got caught in his tire treds and got kicked up under his wheel wells. Now he was going to have to find a way to get a wash on a planet with no wash racks. The next discovery was how green everything was and how clean the air seemed. Plants that looked terminated yesterday where fully back online and green. The air was crisp and clean in his intakes which he thanked both Primus AND the Allspark for. The amount of dirt in the atmosphere was possessor freezing and his air filter was getting clogged. The animals even smelled better to his olfactory sensors, he guessed the rain had washed them. Good. They smelled horrible.

The mud did make chores more time consuming. At one point Zack got his back tires stuck in a puddle of the sticky substance and made AJ swear that she would never speak of that humiliation again. AJ was still giggling every time Zack went out of his way to avoid deep looking puddles. A little after the three o'clock meeting time Zack and AJ where going slowly to avoid splashing mud more than they already had on their way back to the grove of trees. Jess was already waiting for them when the meeting spot came into view. AJ let out a whistle when she saw what the dark haired stranger was leaning on.

"Holy crap!" AJ said out loud. "That's a classic Mustang! Oh man, those haven't been around for YEARS! I've never seen one in person before!"

Zack came to a stop and AJ very nearly leapt from the driver's seat. Jess smiled and gave a little wave. AJ came to a stop before the sports car and gaped like it was something holy. Its red body glittered in the sunlight and the black flames shone like shear perfection.

"Where did you find a car like this?!"

"I've had her a while." Jess gave the car's hood a good pat.

Jess then smiled a sly little smile and pushed herself off the car as she waved AJ closer.

"The paint is like glass. Go on and get a closer look."

AJ held her breath and stepped up to the car.

"I've never touched a classic car before!" She breathed. "Can I?"

"Of course."

AJ held back a squeal of excitement as she laid her hands on the incredibly expensive, incredibly rare car. Jess wasn't lying. The paint WAS like glass.

"Beautiful!" AJ breathed.

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself."

AJ jumped back startled as the car spoke with a similar electronic voice as Zack. Before the human could ask "what was that?!" the sports car before her transformed. Doors shifted and the chassis split at several points. Gears and joints changed and moved. They rearranged themselves into a bipedal robot. Zack transformed as well out of shear instinct.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." Jess smirked.

Zack watched as the other Cybertronion stood. Her battle mask retracted as well as the red visor to reveal a pair of piecing blue optics. It was the same fem that had sprung him from the prison asteroid. Wildfire knelt down in front of a still stunned AJ.

"So Jess tells me you're the one who took care of my friend for me, you have my thanks."

Wildfire was the one to hold out her hand for AJ to shake.

"S-sure. No problem. Zack, you didn't tell me your girlfriend was so cool looking!"

Wildfire gave the black mech a confused look. Zack shot back a "don't ask" glare in response.

"She's NOT my "girlfriend." Zack spat.

"Whoa, touchy much Zack?" AJ asked.

Zack shook his head. This was not going to end well for him. It never ended well for a mech if they were surrounded by fems.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

And yes, it never ends well for Zack…

Well all the players have met! Now the GOOD parts begins!

Holy shit… I was just thinking as I finish editing this… AJ just totally violated Zack twice!! Once with the crawling inside him against his will. That's rape. And then she shoves her key in his ignition?! That's rape two! OH HOLY CRAP! Driving a car = RAPE!!


End file.
